Hock Arthrodesis

[mickey]

My horse was diagnosed with bone spavin a number of years ago. Conservative approaches, tildren, steroid Injection have now failed and coming out of this Winter he is unsound on both hinds at trot.The vet took X-rays of both hocks this week and they looked messy. He is looking into the option of ethyl alcohol arthrodesis - which is going to be difficult, if not impossible, due to little inter joint cartilage remaining to inject into.
The other option may be surgical arthrodesis by drilling under general anaesthesia.
Does anyone have any experience of these two procedures? IE success rates, recovery times, level of discomfort post-procedure, cost.
Also, does anyone know about using MIA? I've heard that this can cause considerable pain in the days post-procedure.
Really worried about all this, I want to do all I can to give him the best chance, even if he ends up just retiring in comfort.

 

[dollymix]

I will try and find the article, but I thought the alcohol injection only had success for those showing the early signs? In ones who are already quite lame, prognosis with this treatment not great. Going out tonight but will dig article out for you (one of my friends is one of the vets who conducted the study z d had the paper published!)

 

[mickey]

Thank you dollymix, appreciate it